Some Enchanting Evening
by Skittles1
Summary: This is Yuki’s POV as he thinks about the past and mainly about Tohru. The riceball girl he had never noticed before until fate brought them together on a wild journey.


Author's Note: I don't own the song "Some Enchanting Evening" from the musical "South Pacific" nor do I own the anime Fruits Basket. This is Yuki's POV as he thinks about the past and Tohru. Enjoy and please review.

Dedicated to my grandfather, who constantly either whistles or sings this song. It's something that always reminds me of him and I get stuck in my head 24/7. So, because of hearing this song so much, I was inspired to write a fic with it. Thus, this is the result.

Some Enchanting Evening

**By: Lauren**

I never really quite noticed her before. She had always been there though. She wasn't a loud and obnoxious girl nor was she like a shy, quiet mouse. She just sat in the back of the classroom happily with her two oddball friends. The psychic girl, the rough blonde haired girl and the ever-cheerful rice ball. They are three different kinds of people that somehow match perfectly. 

It's very strange actually. I mean, she had always existed, had always been in my class, yet I never really took note of her presence much. She was the kind, smiling girl in the class, the girl that seemed to have a perfect, normal life. Maybe that was why I ignored her being there. She had the perfect life- something I am far from having. She was always cheerful, always smiling, something that I couldn't do. She had a normal life- something that I could only dream of. So maybe it was jealousy or maybe…she was like a poster.

When you walk into your room, you know the poster on your wall is there. You just _know_ that it is always there, so you never give it a passing glance. You've seen it every day and you know what it looks like, so why look at it now? It's always the same. It never changes. You could care less if it was there or not.

Yet…sometimes I wonder if you almost depend on it because it's something constant. 

Even so, my mind never strayed to the thought of her. I had enough problems in my life to think about, so why waste a thought on a girl I didn't care about or that I hardly knew? When I think back now, I vaguely remember that fated day that changed her normal life. Actually, it may not have ever been normal to begin with, it only appeared that way. Or maybe I just thought it was normal because she acted like an every day bubbly teenager. 

I was foolish. I knew nothing about her, so who was I to judge? But I do remember that day. Someone had came into the classroom and called her out to talk to her. I could even hear her faint, choked sob before she took off and left class. I heard rumors that her mother had been in a car accident and died. I heard that she was living with her grandfather because her father had died a long time ago and she now had no parents. 

But I didn't care.

It wasn't my life so they weren't my problems.

Yet…when I saw her again at school, she was still smiling as if nothing had happened…as if nothing was wrong…as if her world was still fine and dandy without a single rain cloud in sight. She still laughed and smiled just as she used to.

Tohru, the poster, had changed ever so slightly, yet I never noticed it, nor did anybody else.

~*~

Some enchanted evening  
You may see a stranger,  
You may see a stranger   
Across a crowded room

~*~

I think it all really started when Tohru was snooping around Shigure's and my house. Then he had to go over and start talking to her…about what? Yes, you guessed it, the Jyunishi. 

Shigure was never the brightest man…

Luckily, I was able to stop their conversation in time. I finally got rid of her when she left my side at school, but little did I know that this was _only _the beginning. I tried to scare her off once by telling her how stupid the cat was, and how her hopes of being a 'Cat' were pathetic, but it didn't work. I could tell she was trying to pretend what I said wasn't true and that she wasn't going to take my words to heart.

Already, I didn't like her very much. Fond of the Cat? Ha, it made me laugh.

But…as it seems I often am now…I was wrong. Totally wrong about her.

~*~

And somehow you know,   
You know even then  
That somewhere you'll see her   
Again and again.

~*~

I remember walking home with Shigure, talking about supper or something of the sort. It was an enchanting evening; the stars dotted the sky and were glistening like glimmering frosted diamonds. They stood out against the cloudless, velvet black night sky that shaded the forest a dim gray. A full moon looked down to earth, sending its silvery beams to give the world some faint light. Trees rustled in the slight breeze as my hair stirred and goose bumps rose on my arms, my voice droning on to Shigure, as my feet walked on forward and I believe they were purposing bringing me to where I ended up. They were bringing to a place, a point in my life, where my world would change completely, where it would start spinning and spiraling off the track that it was originally on. 

To a place where two fates would meet and would soon change each other forever.

I remember sharply inhaling my breath, the cold night air filling my lungs as my eyes fell upon a little, flimsy tent that was barely standing up, supported on frail wooden sticks. Was it destiny that Shigure and I had decided to walk home a different route than normal? That we _happened _to stumble upon this humble tent on our land? 

And how had I missed it in the past? Maybe it was because it had never been there before until recently. Even so, it was a huge coincidence that we ended up meeting the way we did. I heard her laughter, her sweet voice speaking to someone who wasn't really there, speaking to a portrait of her departed mother. 

Then in the next moment, Tohru Honda was living with us and she was constantly haunting my mind.

~*~

_Some enchanted evening  
Someone may be laughing,  
You may hear her laughing   
Across a crowded room_

And night after night,  
As strange as it seems  
The sound of her laughter   
Will sing in your dreams.

~*~

I discovered that Tohru acts so different at school from how life really is for her. Frankly, I don't know how she does it. Right before her eyes, her life was torn apart bit by bit until she was left alone and yet she still smiles. She still is cheery and tries to find the good in life. Even after she discovered the Sohma family secret, she accepted it. She didn't think of us as freaks or see us any differently than how she would see a normal human being. She never once gave us a look of disgust or rejected us, as even some Sohma mothers rejected their children. Of course, she tries to be careful not to hug us so that we won't transform, but other than that she treats us no different.

I swear, with one look at you and a tiny conversation, that girl can understand you and have empathy for you.

Maybe that is what makes her so different from everybody else. She has the ability to feel empathy towards others. So many humans lose that within their lifetime or never even try to feel empathy and understanding for other people. 

The number one thing that everybody worries about is themselves. It is always me, myself and I. People consider themselves above everyone else and only think about gaining things for their own selfish needs.

Yet Tohru always tries to understand everybody and tries to help them. She is good-natured like that and sometimes I fear the Sohma family is going to spoil her and ruin her. She might save us or we might destroy her.

I hope she saves us; I hope we never destroy her in the least bit.

She is the first person outside of the Sohma family that I can honestly say I love.

~*~

Who can explain it?  
Who can tell you why?  
Fools give you reasons,   
Wise men never try.

~*~

Yes, I know love is a strong word and shouldn't be thrown around carelessly. Believe me, I understand that. I never once dreamed of ever meeting someone like Tohru. 

Yet, we've been both through so much in the time she's come to live in my household. We've traveled together; she's met all of the Sohma family and even survived Akito- the man who never leaves my nightmares. The man who tries to break us all. Her empathy has allowed her to endure Akito's taunts and threats and even give him a little understanding and meaning. She accepted Kyou in his cursed, 'monster' form. It's like a disease; whenever you're around her, you can't help but be your best.

She's accepted _me_. _Everything_ about me. The good and the bad. She's accepted my faults and she _still _cares for me.

I could never imagine myself with anyone but her. She's given me so much meaning… she's turned my life totally around and it's for the better.

One day, I'm going to make her mine.

~*~

_Some enchanted evening  
When you find your true love,  
When you feel her call you   
Across a crowded room,  
Then fly to her side,   
And make her your own  
For all through your life you   
May dream all alone._

~*~

Tohru is a funny girl. She's very unique and she's taught me many things. Unconsciously, she has also taught me many things about herself. I've seen sides of her no one else has. I've grown to learn that her smile isn't _always_ true but she smiles because that is all she can do. That is all anyone can do. She smiles for whatever good she can find and tries to bring that good out. And because of her smiles, you learn to appreciate whatever you have.

Here was a girl that lost everything dear to her yet she still managed to smile. She still managed to find happiness and in the end, gain a family.

Sometimes I wonder how I never noticed her in the past, this girl that I've grown to love.

It's funny, because she had been there all along yet it took Tohru being homeless and having her build a tent on our land for me to really see her. It took these odd circumstances to bring us together. I guess it's true when people say you can never really know a person until you've lived with them…or maybe it was walk a mile in their shoes…either way, I learned that people aren't always what you expect.

I saw that this person wasn't just an object like a 'poster' that I could never glance at or some smiley teenage girl with a normal life. Tohru is far from that just as I am far from being normal. She's not a poster and even if she were, I'd stare at it all the time. She's not constant because nothing is ever constant in this world except for time and change. She's not something that I'm jealous of because I have learned to enjoy my life, no matter what the hardships I face. She's taught me to love my life, as weird as it is.

She made me see that I was just as selfish as the people I despised. I always wanted someone to be there for me and to understand me but who was I to deserve someone when all I did was ignore others and never attempt to understand them? How could I receive empathy if I never gave it? How could I expect friendship when I never gave it either?

I had only been thinking about me, myself and I.

Tohru made me see that and for that I am grateful. I opened up my heart to her unknowingly, bit by bit, and so she opened hers to me. 

Isn't it funny how things work out? I never imagined I'd grow to love the 'normal' girl in the back of the crowded classroom. The girl that wasn't too loud nor too quiet. The girl I never gave a second thought about. The girl I had never noticed before until fate brought us together. 

She was a rice ball in a basket of fruit; something I thought never belonged in that basket. Now, I would do anything to make her stay and I know she'd never leave us fruits because I found out that all she ever wanted was to be in that basket, even if she was a rice ball. She's proud of being a rice ball and I am proud of everything that she does. 

She is my Tohru. I'll make her mine one day and I'll never let her go…

Heck, after all, rice always tastes good with a little bit of fruit flavoring.

~*~  
  
_Once you have found her,  
Never let her go.  
Once you have found her,  
Never let her go…_


End file.
